As 2025 unfolds, Western Canadian fans of deeply rooted folk and blues music will be pleased to learn that one of the finest practitioners of old-time American music will be playing in Comox.
Hubby Jenkins, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, song interpreter, and sometime songwriter is a one-time member of the acclaimed Carolina Chocolate Drops. This group also featured the enormous talents of Rhiannon Giddens, Don Flemons and Leyla McCalla.
Jenkins is one of several young, brilliantly gifted black musicians, who has taken the deep dive of exploring African American sounds ranging from jug band music, black Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles, country blues and early jazz.
On Tuesday, Feb.18, he will be at the Old Church Theatre in Comox.
鈥淚 first got into old-time music via Harry Smith鈥檚 Anthology of American Folk Music. When I was 19 I got into the country blues via Bob Dylan and then I got into banjo and mandolin. The blues I love is 20鈥檚 and 30鈥檚 prewar blues, Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, Fred McDowell and Blind Willie McTell,鈥� says Jenkins, before adding that he鈥檚 become very interested in broadening the idea of what old-time music is, stating that he initially thought of old-time as banjo and fiddle music but now feels American old-time music 鈥渋ncludes country-blues, traditional jazz, early country music and gospel.
His gigs in Alberta and B.C. coincide with Black History Month and this vital musician鈥檚 career centres around the black experience and history in so many forms of popular music.
鈥淓very experience that the Black American has endured can be found in the blues," says Jenkins.
"If you think you don鈥檛 know about the African American diaspora, it鈥檚 actually in every blues song about a train. If you think you don鈥檛 know about the bias of the prison system, it鈥檚 in every blues song and work song about jail. When Skip James says 'If I hang around Louisiana they鈥檒l hang me sure,' he鈥檚 talking about the danger of being lynched that existed in the South for generations. Connecting these lines for people has become my musical mission and the more I learn about the history, the more I hear in the songs.鈥�
Some important advice came to me from John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers. He watched me perform a few years ago in New York and told to me always mention that the banjo came from black people. That reminded me of the importance of educating and performing with a message.鈥�
Hubby Jenkins will also be participating in a Carolina Chocolate Drops reunion in April with former bandmates Rhiannon Giddens, Don Flemons and Leyla McCalla and Jenkins was recently featured on the cover of Living Blues magazine.
Tickets for the concerts can be purchased at .
